


The Vial

by friedhotsauce



Series: Words to Middle-Earth [15]
Category: The Hobbit - All Media Types
Genre: Angst, Emotional Hurt/Comfort, F/M, Gen, Poetry, vague pairing
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-03-02
Updated: 2014-03-02
Packaged: 2018-01-14 06:58:50
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 461
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1257142
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/friedhotsauce/pseuds/friedhotsauce
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Something blue, something borrowed, something that is nothing more.</p>
            </blockquote>





	The Vial

"Worry not Tauriel, it's just like walking a dog."  
One of the guards had said  
But dogs  
They are much more loyal  
Than those impish beings  
Dwarves

She takes the wheat-haired one  
The young heir under the mountain  
And reaches into the soil  
To dress him with   
Restraints  
Of vines and thorns

They trace miles of steps  
Backwards, rewinding into the deep woods  
Running errands for  
Who   
What  
When  
Where  
And why  
At the edge of the unearthly forest  
Where the two worlds collided

Her borderline death stare locked on Fili  
Breaks for a mountain-shattering moment  
Tauriel lifts her chin to the sky   
She smiles rosily   
At a singing blue bird  
Flying labyrinths into the clouds  
That makes the dwarf dizzy with wonder  
For a moment, the perfect strangers   
Are one in amusement

Then, metal  
A soaring tip of poison  
Battles the bird for supremacy  
And wins  
The chirping beak of Tauriel's   
Only true happiness  
Floats, like the angel it is, right into her   
Crying palm  
In this moment  
She abandons the prisoner and his presence  
But he follows her in exchange

"You, you have to help me." Tauriel's voice quakes  
Under Fili's feet  
"But how?"  
"A vial, I remember, you had some sort of vial in your coat pocket."  
The only thing the captain didn't confiscate  
She fights hard in order not to conform  
Into an automaton  
"This?" Fili's wrapped fingers indicate  
"Yes!" Tauriel bows at hope's diamond presence  
The gleaming jewel fades though  
Replicating the dwarf's expression

"It's empty."  
"What?"  
"It was never full to begin with. I carry this vial because- it's reassuring."  
"How reassuring is an empty healing vial?"  
"More than you think." Fili mumbles, remembering the last time the vessel  
Whispered silvery warnings into his ear  
Right before entering Mirkwood

She is slowly melting into a waterfall of grief  
Blueing at the fingertips from holding the carcass  
Too tightly  
The woods, they seem grayer than before  
"Is there anything I can do?" Fili asks in kind desperation  
He has seen an elf cry  
They are equals now  
"Leave me." Tauriel's voice murmurs  
From underneath her hunched back

He looks to the near horizon  
And sees a framed clearing  
Laktown  
Dale  
Erebor  
Defeat Smaug   
Reclaim the homeland  
Immortal in plaques, portraits, and school children's texts  
But he turns the other way

The dwarf has seen an elf cry  
And mourn  
The loss of organic matter  
The size of a blueberry  
He won't antagonize her on purpose  
She has a funeral to prepare  
And he has a bed in a cell  
That calls his name

A nest thrown together  
In a tidy amount of time would've sufficed  
As a coffin  
But homely twigs are no match  
For the crystal vial  
The dwarf prince had left behind   
For Tauriel


End file.
